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Michael Eligon believed “the world was against him” in the days before he was shot dead by police, an inquest heard Tuesday.

The 29-year-old Toronto man suffered from depression with psychotic features. His delusions that strangers were talking about him and plotting to hurt him grew worse just before his death, a mental health worker testified.

“He felt like the walls were closing in on him,” said Monique Garrow, his former case worker at St. Joseph’s Hospital. “He was troubled. He was paranoid. He kept wondering why people are doing this to him.”

On Feb. 3, 2012, Eligon escaped from Toronto East General Hospital, where he had been admitted for a mental health assessment. He was wandering in a residential neighbourhood wearing a hospital gown and carrying two pairs of scissors when he was shot by police.

Garrow broke down in tears as she described Eligon’s mental state. He suffered from a number of delusions, including that he had appeared on TV news for “smelling bad” and that hospital staff had infected him with HIV.

Eligon had also become obsessed with an Atlanta-based female news anchor. He believed she had moved into the homeless shelter where he was living and he could hear her having sex with another resident, Garrow testified.

In late January, Eligon was admitted to COTA, a “safe house” for mentally ill people. Joy Evans, a worker at the home, testified that he believed staff and residents were talking about him and making up lies about him.

“Michael was scared,” said Evans. “He was scared because he thought people were watching him, after him.”

On Feb. 1, after not eating or sleeping for two days, he called Garrow in tears and asked for her help, she said.

“He just sounded so tortured,” Garrow recalled. “He was so beaten. It was like he thought the world was against him.”

Police were called to take him to hospital. Const. David Crampton testified that Eligon refused to go with him and another officer at first, so he was handcuffed and apprehended under the Mental Health Act.

Eligon’s father, Michael Eligon Sr., began to weep uncontrollably as he heard how his son pleaded “in a childlike voice” for the officer to remove the handcuffs. The inquest took a brief recess due to the father’s breakdown.

Crampton said it was standard policy to handcuff people who are apprehended. The officer could not remove the handcuffs in the hospital waiting room because Eligon could have been unpredictable or dangerous, he said.

“The handcuffs go on for my safety and his safety,” said Crampton. “I don’t have a crystal ball. I can’t determine how people are going to react.”

Eligon was admitted to Toronto East General Hospital for an involuntary 72-hour assessment — not because he posed a danger to himself or anyone else, but because he did not appear to be able to care for himself, said Crampton.

He was supposed to be moved later to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where he had stayed in the past, but that never happened.

Instead, Eligon walked out of the hospital in the early hours of Feb. 3. He stole two pairs of scissors from a convenience store and frightened nearby residents, prompting several 911 calls. Police shot him on a quiet street after he apparently ignored commands to drop the scissors.

Garrow testified that Eligon was a “gentle” man who never showed signs of wanting to harm himself or anyone else. “He felt people were out to harm him,” she said.

Eligon was also a father to an eight-year-old son. The child’s mother, Shereen Simon, listened quietly in court next to Eligon Sr. on Tuesday.

A single coroner’s inquest has been called to examine the fatal police shootings of three mentally ill people: Eligon, Sylvia Klibingaitis and Reyal Jardine-Douglas. Hospital staff and civilians who encountered Eligon are expected to testify this week.

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